A Contemplation of My Brokenness

I looked down
And feathers, once mighty,
Now snapped and broken,
Bent and torn,
Lay strewn about the ground
Like drops of down I had bled
Unceassingly.
Unto the earth they had fallen,
As if I had shed them willingly,
Yet only I was to know
It had not been my desire
But had been desired of me;
To create a perfect
Servant
I had been rendered flightless,
And on the ground
I knelt.

People walked around,
Looked with eyes
Of oblivion,
And none saw my shame.
Did any realize my pain?
No one there
To understand the breadth
Of my humbling.
A few might stare -
With minds not yet to comprehend -
But still not a one,
For me there was no companion
In thought or experience;
Abandoned in the wilderness
Of my destroyed pride.

As I clutched the shards
And feathered pieces
That once had born me unto that
Sky above,
I looked ahead, unable to believe
Or know what I must do.
And so I simply unclenched my fists,
Dropping what I clung to,
Inching to what
I had to accept,
My hands crept over shoulders
To wings that were not there.
While feeling still their potency,
Desiring their presence
Upon my back,
All that was left:
My shame
My scars
My wings now broken at the stems

God looked down and nodded,
I looked down and wept;
Accepting all my training
And tears of blood to shed

So sayeth The Brad...